Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and potentially the deciding vote, will announce Tuesday his opposition to the possible picking of Elliot Abrams for deputy secretary of state, according to a senior aide close to the Kentucky senator.
Paul’s disapproval could set up a rocky confirmation process for the No. 2 position at State, should Abrams, a top contender for the spot, be tapped by President Donald Trump.
While the White House didn’t list Abrams officially on the President’s schedule, CNN has reported he is slated to be at Tuesday’s meeting with Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Paul will cite Abrams’ previous support of the Iraq War and his record taking different stances than the President on key foreign policy issues, the aide said.
He will also bring up the fact that Abrams was convicted on two misdemeanor accounts for withholding information to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. He was later pardoned by President George H.W. Bush.
“In a country of 300 million people, surely there are reasonable foreign policy experts who have not been convicted of deceiving Congress and actually share the President’s foreign policy views,” Paul will say in an op-ed set to publish Tuesday.
Paul is also opposed to John Bolton, another name who’s been mentioned for this post.
